Friday, May 28, 2010

Quick Hits #7

#1 Our older daughter Macy turns 9 today. Someone slow down time. I know it's a cliche to begin a sentence with "It seems like only yesterday," so I'll just tuck into the 2nd and 3rd parts of this sentence, because it seems like only yesterday she was toddling around in the living room babbling on about Memo. (That's Elmo to you and me.) I held her 4 month-old form in my lap when I watched the 2nd plane hit the WTC live on "The Today Show." I was frightened then about the world we were going to raise her in. For eight years I worked from home, making me a stay-at-home dad for our little girls. Becky and I sought as best we could to reverse our roles all that time, but 9 years later, now that she's at home and I'm in the fields, I am profoundly grateful to have been able to spend so much time with my girlies as they learned how to walk, play, laugh, and ask big questions. Not many daddies get that. I'm glad I did. (Becky has a Macy birthday post here.)

#3 Lots of discussion over David Platt's book Radical. I have it but have not read it yet. I look forward to doing so. I think the message that folks like Platt (and Francis Chan, et.al.) give to the evangelical church is valuable and necessary. Like some others, though, I do worry at times that it inadvertently implies a pendulum swing off the other side into a pietism of sorts, if not legalism. I think Chan could stand to proclaim some more gospel in his stuff, needful thought it is. I don't know if I'd say the same about Platt yet, but it appears others are saying so. Guess I'll see when I read the book.

#5 According to this article from Science Daily, having 500 or more books in your home is as important to your child's educational level as your own educational level. And for the record, I can always tell who's not a reader when they come to my house, see the books, and ask, "Have you read all these?" I always want to say, "Have you eaten all the food in your refrigerator?" Well, of course not, but it's there when you need it. :-)

#6 This passage from a recent blog post is one of the bajillion reasons why I love Ray Ortlund:

I don’t change when gospel concepts start surprising me, wonderful and essential as that is. Gospel concepts spread the table, so to speak, for the feast of Christ himself, who fills me and heals me and energizes me. I change, really change, when I feel loved by him. I change when I feel accepted by him. I change when I feel set free by him. That goes beyond concepts. It is an experience. That experience follows the logical and psychological trajectory set by the doctrines. But what I need is the touch of Christ himself.

#7 If I started writing about the debacle that was Game 5 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, I wouldn't be able to call this feature "quick." I am smarting after that inglorious loss by the Boston Celtics. But Game 6 is tonight, and if they can manage despite Perkins's verge-of-suspension technical foul situation, Davis's and Daniels's concussions, Wallace's back spasms, Rondo's sudden anomalous slowness, and Orlando's Dwight Howard's sudden decision to play like a basketball Kraken to eke out a win, they will proceed to the Championship series. I'm not sure my heart could take a game 7. :-) Go Celtics!